


Useful Skillset

by antigrav_vector



Series: Bingo - Western AU [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 1872, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Western, Cap_Ironman Bingo, Crossover, M/M, Multiverse, Self-Sacrificing Tony Stark, Stony Bingo, Stony Bingo 2016, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 00:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8307043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: Tony figures out how he can help the residents of Timely.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the "running out of time" prompt on my bingo card. Betaed by the lovely [navaan](http://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan).

Looking around the sitting room of Mrs. Barnes's small house near the edge of town, Tony wanted to scream. They were being so stubborn about not letting him help. And, sure, he could see the logic, but fuck if it didn't chafe at him until he bled.

He wanted to _do_ something. All this was his fault, and just sitting back wasn't his style to begin with.

Without knowing more about the situation, though, he was useless.

He knew nothing about Fisk, about this guy Bullseye who'd beaten his counterpart half to death and then left him to burn alive, about the politics within the small town, about the politics in the county or the state...

What he needed was a newspaper or a telegram station or something, and those were also scarce, here. He'd found out from Carol that the town had its own news man, a Ben Urich, but that he was being blackmailed by Fisk and wouldn't say a word that might get his family hurt.

This whole situation was FUBAR, and Tony couldn't see how to fix it, short of getting rid of Fisk entirely.

How to do that without using his armour was the tough question to answer. His tech was useless without the infrastructure to support it, and on his own he wasn't a match for more than a few opponents. He was good, but he was no Captain America.

He also had no idea how long he would be stranded here. Reed and his own Steve were doubtless working to get him home. And, while he had no idea whether time flowed faster or slower in parallel universes, general relativity and time dilation being what they were, all of the plans he could come up with that had a reasonable chance of working were long-term. Some would take months.

Hopefully, Tony told himself as he listened to the others argue about every possible permutation of their own plan, he wouldn't be here for months. But he was running out of time to help these people already and he knew it.

Not to mention that Pepper was going to kill him.

When his counterpart reappeared to exclamations of dismay from Jan, looking pained and moving stiffly, Tony couldn't help but stare at him and think. That was a man tormented by demons of his own making. A man who had let Bullseye do as he pleased, if Tony's suspicions were correct. He could relate. There had been plenty of times he'd felt defeated enough that he might have allowed something like that to happen. Until now, though, he'd always picked himself up, driven by the need to keep his company intact and fix his mistakes. This version of him didn't have Iron Man to help him work through things until he reached that conclusion, though, and it showed in his careworn appearance. The gunsmith looked a lot older than he truly was.

Tuning back into the conversation, Tony found himself siding with Carol and Mrs. Barnes.

"-- need to get a hold of Mr. Urich," Carol was saying. "If we can persuade him to let us break in and send a telegram, we have a chance to expose Fisk once and for all."

"Now that's the first good plan I've heard so far," Tony put in, jumping on the opportunity. "Publicity is always the last thing people like Fisk want. Any of you know how to work a telegraph?"

"No," Carol admitted, "Urich is the only one in town who does."

"No, he's not." Tony shot back. "Not anymore."

"You," Carol sounded disbelieving, "know how to work a telegraph?"

"Yep," Tony grinned at her. "Finally, something I can help with that you _can't_ tell me one of you could do better."

He was exaggerating, but he was confident it couldn't be that hard to work out. He knew the principles of it -- that bringing the contacts of the machine together would cause the tone to sound on the other end -- and his suit had all manner of communications codes programmed into it. Morse code ought to be on that list. It was still standard procedure to teach it to the airmen of the Navy and Air Force in his time, after all, even if it was only for use in emergencies. He just had to pull it up and memorise the code in the next few hours, so he could be sure he wouldn't be unable to send the message if he was cut off from his suit. No sweat, right?

The sheriff looked like he wanted to protest.

\------


End file.
